In its first application of the Daubert standard regarding the admissibility of expert testimony, the Maryland Court of Appeals has affirmed that a trial court acted within its discretion to admit a scientist’s testimony about the use of photogrammetry to identify a murder suspect’s height, despite an unknown degree of uncertainty in the measurements.
Nearly two years ago, the court announced a potentially game-changing move in litigation in Rochkind v. Stevenson, abandoning the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s 1923 holding in Frye v. United States—adopted as Reed v. State in Maryland—which made expert admissible if based on “generally accepted” concepts.
